Tuesday, May 26, 2009

This post has no downloads of mp3, but links to videos, and is a tribute to one of the essential bands of the Folk-Punk scene of the 80-90´s, The Whisky Priests.The Whisky Priests were founded in Durham (North East of England) in 1985 by the Miller twins, Glenn (accordion) and Gary (Lead vocals and guitar) plus some friends. The band was active till 2000 and although there were a lot of changes of personnel, they were able to release several EPs, six studio albums and 2 live albums. At the bottom you will find the link to mediafire where I have put the biography of the band, the links to the reviews of several albums, all the Newsletters from 1994 to 2000, some promotional photos and the links to some stores where some of their albums are available.Recently, Gary has posted some videos to YouTube, one from the first album "Nee Gud Luck", (1989), a couple of songs from "Think Positive!" at a German TV show and 11 tracks from the "Here Come the Ranting Lads-Live!" video (1999)The first video is a promo video for "Street Paved with Gold" taken from "Nee Gud Luck" recorded at Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham, broadcast on "On the Edge" Tyne Tees TV on 1990:"Streets Paved with Gold"

The Whisky Priests promo video for 'Streets Paved With Gold' (taken from
the album 'Nee Gud Luck' on Whippet Records WPTCD4 1989 / WPTCD20
1994). Video recorded at Beamish Open Air Museum, County Durham, England
- broadcast on 'On The Edge' Tyne Tees TV 1990

The last studio album, "Think Positive!", was released in 1998 and, apart from the five members of the band at that time (Glenn, Gary, Hugh Bradley, Andy Tong and Cozy Dixon), there was an important guest or part-time Priest, Chuck Flemming, who played in the seminal Scottish Folk Rock outfit The JSD Band.The two videos show the band performing "Car Boot Sale" and "Side by Side" on TV Berlin on October 9th, 1998:"Car Boot Sale"The Whisky Priests perform 'Car Boot Sale' from their 1998 CD 'Think Poisitive!' live on TV Berlin on 9th October 1998.

This sampler, no. 10, includes four bands from Hungary. Two are Celtic punk bands (Firkin and Paddy and the Rats) and two are folk-rock bands (BlackRiders, Rat Boys). The first two bands show clearly that excellent Celtic punk bands can be found elsewhere.

Firkin comes from Budapest. The band was founded by an old member of MEZ, the main Hungarian Celtic folk band. This 7 piece outfit has released a 5 tracks promotional single in 2008 (with some Flogging Molly covers) and intend to release its first album during 2009.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

This comes from the band's own website: "White Owl is a Russian folk-core group, created in Moscow, who plays music from different nations adapted in various styles. Since the tastes of the musicians don't belong to the same genre, their arrangements are mixtures of such traditions as Alternative, Indie, Hard Rock, Hardcore, Disco, Folk Tradition and even Renaissance. The ways some folk standards such as "Lord of the Dance" or "Cunla" are presented can be taken for a joke. And this is true - it was a joke at first but then the White Owl found that the idea was well enough for taking it seriously."

Both of them are available for free download. The first one can be downloaded from the band's website. In the Russian version you can download some tracks from the second album one by one, the lyrics from both albums in PDF and a 24 Mb zip file with the first album. In the English version you can download some tracks from the second album and all from the first album, but one by one.

The complete second album can be downloaded for free from Jamendo. Click on "descargar" and when the new window opens, click on the top "vinculo directo"

This sampler includes 4 Czech bands, two bagpipes punk bands, an indie/alternative band using folk instruments and one Celtic Folk Rock band.

The first band is Benjaming Band, a true bagpipes punk band that I have really enjoyed. They sing in Czech and their website is in Czech too. Apparently, they have a long discography, but I feel that some of these recordings could be demos.

The next band is neither a Celtic Rock, nor a Celtic Punk band, but they use folk instruments (fiddle, banjo, accordion). The name of the band, Divokej Bill, means Wild Bill (Hycock). This band has a close relationship with the Levellers. They have played at the Levellers' Festival (Beautiful Days) and the Levellers have played at Divokej Bill's Festival. Besides, Divokej Bill has toured Great Britain with the Levellers. They have released some albums and two DVD.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Cercavins is a band from Lerida, in the Catalonia region (Spain). The band started back in 1997 as a traditional band, but little by little they become a Folk Rock band. Nowadays they are an eight piece and have released three albums and two demos.